Prysmian at FT-ETNO Summit 2018

PRYSMIAN

The FT-ETNO Summit 2018 in Brussels gathered leading policymakers, regulators, industry executives and investors from Europe and beyond to discuss and debate progress towards harmonised TMT rules, and Europe’s role in an ever more connected world.

Philippe Vanhille

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR TELECOMS PRYSMIAN GROUP

At the Summit, Prysmian Group’s Senior Vice President for Telecoms, Philippe Vanhille, laid out a vision for a successful future telecoms and digital sector emphasising the importance of both investors and policy-makers taking a long-term view. This means promoting the deployment of high-quality passive infrastructure that will be able to respond to future demands.

With the negotiations over the future European telecoms framework finally complete at EU level and the European Parliament starting to prepare itself for the next elections, EU politicians and officials are now entering a period of both assessment and brainstorming. On the one hand, they must measure and assess the immediate effects of the new framework, as Member States begin the task of implementing the rules into their national laws. On the other, as a wider period of reflection begins in the lead up to the European elections, they are considering the future steers they want to give to the European digital economy.

Prysmian Group is convinced that even in the current time of political change, it is crucial to stay focussed on the European Commission’s ambitious connectivity goals. “We need the concept of deep fibre to become mainstream”, explained Philippe Vanhille: “A dense fibre network that can fulfil the requirements of future digital applications”.

During her opening remarks, Commissioner Gabriel stated that Europe is under pressure to deliver collectively in order to keep the pace of digital change. She saw three major challenges: creation of a level-playing field and conditions for fair competition, the need to adapt to digital times and in particular renew our social contract and the need to invest in human capital, research and development. She also remarked that the Digital Single Market will go some way to taking on these challenges and has made progress in the areas of content portability, ending roaming surcharges and unjustified geo-blocking, and protecting of personal data.

At the Summit, Prysmian Group’s Senior Vice President for Telecoms, Philippe Vanhille, laid out a vision for a successful future telecoms and digital sector emphasising the importance of both investors and policy-makers taking a long-term view. This means promoting the deployment of high-quality passive infrastructure that will be able to respond to future demands.

With the negotiations over the future European telecoms framework finally complete at EU level and the European Parliament starting to prepare itself for the next elections, EU politicians and officials are now entering a period of both assessment and brainstorming. On the one hand, they must measure and assess the immediate effects of the new framework, as Member States begin the task of implementing the rules into their national laws. On the other, as a wider period of reflection begins in the lead up to the European elections, they are considering the future steers they want to give to the European digital economy.

Prysmian Group is convinced that even in the current time of political change, it is crucial to stay focussed on the European Commission’s ambitious connectivity goals. “We need the concept of deep fibre to become mainstream”, explained Philippe Vanhille: “A dense fibre network that can fulfil the requirements of future digital applications”.

During her opening remarks, Commissioner Gabriel stated that Europe is under pressure to deliver collectively in order to keep the pace of digital change. She saw three major challenges: creation of a level-playing field and conditions for fair competition, the need to adapt to digital times and in particular renew our social contract and the need to invest in human capital, research and development. She also remarked that the Digital Single Market will go some way to taking on these challenges and has made progress in the areas of content portability, ending roaming surcharges and unjustified geo-blocking, and protecting of personal data.